I’m going to make this quick as I want to do some cooking before I go to bed (really bad timing, I know, but it’s more preparational cooking rather than having a huge meal right now). And I don’t want to make too much noise because of others sleeping.
Well, all that happened today was I went to some lessons. Specifically Vincent’s lessons, as I only have first and second period on a Wednesday.
The first lesson was Linguistics again of course, taught in English as always, and today we continued analyzing Japanese humour and how it compares to Western humour.
I’d known from last week we were going to be studying South Park in class, but I got treated again when I found out we were also analyzing pages from the One Piece manga. Two of my favourite shows in one class. How convenient that we could see both Japanese translated to English, and English translated to Japanese, and how both translations dealt with the cultural transmission of humour.
Manga is in one of those unfortunate positions where you have to make direct translations, because of the pictures and the timing and the box sizes limiting possibilities to get a good translation. I suppose cartoons are also the same. Also, translators for manga are under extreme time pressure, so they do what they can to make a joke in Japanese funny to an English audience, but they shouldn’t spend more than a few minutes on each phrase, so the possibilities to what they can do are limited.
There were more examples, but from the Japanese-English One Piece examples, this one was to me, the most interesting.
Luffy (the main character of One Piece) has just met a man stuck inside a treasure chest, and he makes a joke in Japanese which is very difficult to translate into English.
Here there’s a pun, and a demonstration of noritsukkomi (the reacting part of a duo who at first plays along then goes “what are you on about?!”).
Luffy says: “This is my first time seeing a guy in a box,” then in Japanese, he says, 「箱入り息子なのか？」“hakoiri musuko na no ka?” (“Are you a son-in-a-box?”)
That doesn’t make much sense in English, but the phrase 箱入り娘 hakoiri musume roughly translates as “daughter in a box”, and it refers to a girl who’s led a sheltered life, maybe her parents have never let her do anything on her own, etc. So here, Luffy made a pun and called him a “son in a box”, as he’s stuck in a “box of treasures”. Har har.
Then the guy in the treasure chest (I forgot his name, it’s been so long since I saw One Piece) takes on the role of noritsukkomi to Luffy’s boke and replies, “Ahhh yes, when I was little my parents were very nice to me… ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!”
Hahaha. I started watching anime when I was 14 (wow, six years ago… time flies), and I think I naturally got used to Japanese humour, somehow knowing what’s funny and being able to laugh really hard. And I think One Piece is one of the funniest anime I know. But I don’t know if people who’d never watched anime would find it funny the way I do.
Then in English, they translated it as:
“Ah, I’ve never seen a man in a treasure chest before. Are you a boxer?”
“Ah, well when I was little… HEY, THAT’S A STUPID JOKE!”
So they had to completely change the pun. I like what they did with “boxer” (albeit very cheesy), but making the link between the treasure chest being a box is a little vaguer, as we don’t call a treasure chest a “box” in English.
Then we watched part of the South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut movie, first in English with Japanese subtitles, then dubbed by Japanese voice actors.
And… oh shit, I only just realised the significance behind the title Bigger, Longer and Uncut. I should have guessed. But it was so subtle. It just sounded like a classy name that encased the transition from TV to the big screen. It’s taken me nine years to realize they made a phallic joke, and totally got away with it. I am so slow.
If I can find a DVD of South Park here in Japan I think I’ll buy it. I’m very fortunate as Europe and Japan have the same DVD region. I should probably buy all the DVDs I can, haha. I was annoyed that I couldn’t find certain movies on YouTube with an English sub so maybe the DVDs will have them.
Anyway, first we watched the scene at the very beginning where they’re off to watch the new Terrance & Phillip movie, and they get rejected at the ticket office. When Vincent was setting up the DVD and skipping through to the right part, I heard the opening theme of “Terrance and Phillip: Asses of Fire”, and I was like, oh boy. Vincent DID say the clip he was showing didn’t have very bad language, but all I could think of at that moment was Phillip going “You are such a pig-fucker, Terrance”. Among other things that would lead to Sheila Broflovski having a coronary. I don’t think I’d have been able to contain my laughter if I’d seen that clip.
But no, we didn’t see that part. Probably a good thing in the end.
Vincent mentioned that while Japanese people watch English movies and find them interesting, they rarely find them funny, as we just have a different sense of humour. He’d often find himself in a movie theatre and he’d be the only one laughing. I have to agree, that’s happened to me, less than a week ago, actually, at a scene at the end of The Battle of the Five Armies.
Vincent also commented that the way they’d translated it in the South Park Japanese dub actually really worked, in a way so that Japanese people could find it funny. For one, they’d translated it into Kansai-ben, which is regarded as “funny-language” nationwide. Also in the scene where they’re not allowed into the movie theater, they were able to turn Kyle into a tsukkomi, which was more helpful. The ticket office guy says something along the lines of “This film has been rated R under the Motion Picture Association of America. You can’t enter without a legal parent or guardian.” Kyle says, “but why?”, and the guys goes, “BECAUSE THIS FILM HAS NAUGHTY LANGUAGE!” (“Next, please.”)
In Japanese, where Kyle says, “but why?”, they change it to “nandeyanen?” (“What are you on about?”), which is a classic Kansai dialect tsukkomi phrase. Also, when the guy goes “BECAUSE THIS FILM HAS NAUGHTY LANGUAGE!” in Japanese, apparently its Japanese counterpart is also considered quite funny, so this scene in particular really worked.
However, I think I was the only one laughing when Cartman goes, “yeah, but the animation’s all crappy” and then they walk along side-by-side, showcasing the show’s own crappy animation. Har har har.
We have the exam next week, but from what I hear from Lisa, it’s quite kind. I’m making a chart with notes on for each of the sections he’s covered. I hope I get a good mark, as Linguistics was one of my favourite classes this semester and I paid as much attention as I could.
Then there was the reading class, and then I went back to my dorm. We finished early, so I could have snagged a seat at the canteen before it got really busy, but I’m being careful with money, so I resisted the urge and went home to eat soup and a sandwich instead.
And then I had a nap, which probably wasn’t a good idea as I’d slept for ten hours the night before, but somehow, it wasn’t enough.
Still, I only had a short one, and I felt very replenished afterwards.
My original plan had been to get up early tomorrow and make a quick trip to Universal Studios (as quick as a trip there can be, haha) for certain reasons, but then Rika invited me to go to karaoke tomorrow, and we’ve not hung out in AGES so naturally, I happily agreed to go. Universal Studios can wait. I also need to find some work shoes at some point for my interview next week, which I’m nervous about as I have pretty big feet (size 8 UK), and it’s hard finding shoes even in England. So I’ve no idea what it’ll be like in Japan. I’ll just try to find flats if I can, or nondescript loafer-type shoes. No heels if I can help it. Is it acceptable for working women to wear trousers over here, or are skirts preferred? I’d rather not show off my legs.
Anyway! That’s enough for today.
naiveinnippon 